Sir,-Your correspondent C. T. Williams seems to have been gulled by that able propagandist H. G. Wells into believing that the Wellsian "biology" is a panacea for our intellectual and moral ills. His suggestion that the problem of sex education would be solved by the teaching of this "biology" is fatuous in its naivete, but no more than one expects from an adherent of the discredited hypothesis of extreme evolutionism. "After all," the argument runs, ‘if the lower animals are preserved from sex problems by their ignorance of ethics, why should not it be the same with man? Let us then stick to physiology, and the morals will look after themselves." The moralists of all the ages would listen to such nonsense with a pitying smile.
The authorities I have already quoted are sufficient to show that the evolutionism to which Mr. Williams pins his faith is what I have called it, a discredited hypothesis. As the time-lag between European and New Zealand thought is about 20 years, this hypothesis will probably linger on here for some years, as a sort of tuatara of scientific theories, before being consigned to the limbo of lost theories, to which Mr. Williams is confident that the teaching of "biology" will relegate "Sincere" and myself, With regard to the origin of man, Vialleton writes in his book, L’Origine des Etres Vivants that between the Oligocene and the first strata containing human remains there is a great gap in which no bone has been found that can be related to man, and when the human type appears, it appears complete. And Vialleton is a "biologist of repute" for all but the ignoramus. Can Mr. Williams point to any fossil and say that, while not human, it is certainly an ancestor of man?
Mr. Williams would have been wiser not to mention experimental evidence and the work of breeders, for these provide a strong argument against his theory. The breeder can effect superficial changes in the race or species, but there are welldefined limits beyond which he cannot go. His breeds of pigeons, dogs, or cattle are pigeons, dogs and cattle from start to finish; and no one has succeeded in crossing mules. !
G.H.
D.
(Greenmeadows).
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19451116.2.13.11
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 334, 16 November 1945, Page 24
Word count
Tapeke kupu
370Untitled New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 334, 16 November 1945, Page 24
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in